Winners and Losers of the 2014 budget

Students, foreign aid and families are the big losers in Joe Hockey's 2014 budget, while health and education are set to be hit, but only after 2017. Medical research is set to get a massive boost with the establishment of a $20 billion future fund, while the Government has also made investment in infrastructure one of the few winners in tonight's budget.

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Loser: Families

The Government has reduced the cut-off for Family Tax Benefit B to $100,000 from $150,000.

Previously the Family Tax Benefit B extended to families with children under 18; that will now be cut off for families where the youngest child is six or older.

All family benefits will also remain on hold until either 2016 or 2017, resulting in a loss of income in real terms, as it will no longer take into account increases in inflation.

Families will also be hit by increases in the petrol excise, which will now be indexed to inflation every six months.

Families will be negatively affected by the introduction of a GP co-payment of $7 ($5 of which the Government will take), for the first 10 visits to the GP per year ($70). After 10 visits, patients with concession cards and children under 16 will be exempt from the fee.

Hospitals will also be allowed to charge for visits to emergency rooms by patients with ailments that only require a visit to a GP.

Medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme will also be more expensive, with patients paying a $5 fee – or 80 cents for those on concession cards.

Families will also be expected to provide greater financial support for adult children for longer, with the age of eligibility for Newstart to be raised from 22 to 25, and school leavers being forced to waits six months to be eligible for Youth Allowance. People on Newstart under the age of 30 will only be eligible for payments six months out of every 12 months they are unemployed.

Winner: Medical research

The Government has announced a $20 billion Medical Research Future Fund.

Money for the Fund up to $20 billion will come from savings in health care revenue, including the $7.00 GP co-payment.

The aim of the fund is to distribute ongoing funding for medical research, with these distributions to hit $1 billion by 2022-23.

Despite this massive increase in medical research, funding for other research organisations including the CSIRO (down by $114.4 million over four years) will be reduced by $146.8 million over four years.

Loser: Senior citizens

Pensioners will be affected by a $7 co-payment to see a GP. This will be waived after 10 visits per year for concession card holders.

Commonwealth Seniors Health Card holders will lose the Seniors supplement, which currently sits at $876.20 per year for singles and $1,320.80 for couples.

Pensioners will also be hit by the return to indexing the fuel excise, with lower income earners spending a higher proportion of their income on petrol.

The Seniors Health Card will be harder to qualify for, with the untaxed superannuation of new applicants now counting toward the income test.

And the Commonwealth will dramatically cut its support for various state- and territory-based seniors' concessions, eliminating $1.3 billion in spending.

The pension age will rise to 70, as foreshadowed before the budget, but not until 2035, and so will only affect Australians born after 1966. The youngest people to be affected by the gradual rise in pension age will be people born after 1 July 1952.

Loser: Education

The Government will dump the Gonski school funding plan in 2017-18, saving around $30 billion from the Federal budget.

Young people are also likely to be faced with higher university costs, with the Government announcing it will uncap university fees. Currently the student contribution to a university degree is capped, but the cap on those contributions will be removed from 2016.

The Government will also charge an interest rate on FEE-HELP loans that "reflects the cost of government borrowings". Currently loans are indexed each year to reflect inflation, but this will be replaced by the government bond rate equivalent, which is traditionally much higher than inflation.

The minimum income threshold at which people will have to begin repaying their debt will be lowered by 10 per cent.

Loser: Health

Hospital funding agreements, agreed with the states and territories under former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd, will also be wound back from 2017, saving a massive $50 billion over eight years.

Other health cuts include reducing the Medicare rebate for optometry, deferring a multi-million-dollar dental program, and axing the national partnership agreement on preventive health.

The Government will also save $1.7 billion over five years by pausing the Medicare benefits schedule for two years from this July, and the income thresholds for the Medicare levy surcharge and the private health insurance rebate.

Patients overall will be losers, expected to pay a $7 co-payment to visit the GP, and to pay more for medication through changes to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

Loser: The unemployed

For young people looking for work the Government is raising the age of eligibility for Newstart from 22 to 25. Previously once people turned 22 they would shift from the lower-paid Youth Allowance to Newstart, giving them an extra $96 per fortnight.

People under 30 who become unemployed will have to wait six months to be eligible for Newstart, and will only be able to claim it for six months before the benefit is cut for another six months. This six-month cycle of getting benefits cut and returned will continue until someone gets a job or turns 30.

Job seekers under 30 will also have to do 25 hours per week on a work for the dole scheme while receiving benefits.

However, employers will be paid up to $10,000 for hiring job seekers over 50 - $3,000 for six months, $6,000 for 12 months, $8,000 for 18 months, and $10,000 for two years.

Loser: Young people

The Government is raising the age of eligibility for Newstart from 22 to 25. Previously once people turned 22 they would shift from the lower-paid Youth Allowance to Newstart, giving them an increase from $414 per fortnight to $510.

People under 30 who are unemployed will have to wait six months to be eligible for Newstart benefits, and will only be able to claim it for six months before the benefit is cut for another six months. This six-month cycle of getting benefits cut and returned will continue until someone gets a job or turns 30.

Job seekers under 30 will also have to do 25 hours per week on a work for the dole scheme while receiving benefits.

However the Government is extending the FEE-HELP scheme to diplomas and other post-graduate studies.

Young people are also likely to be faced with higher university costs, with the Government announcing it will uncap university fees. Currently the student contribution to a university degree is capped, however, the cap on those contributions will be removed from 2016.

The Government will also charge an interest rate on FEE-HELP loans that "reflects the cost of government borrowings". Currently loans are indexed each year to reflect inflation, however, this will be replaced by the government bond rate equivalent, which is traditionally much higher than inflation.

The minimum income threshold at which people have to begin repaying their debt will be lowered by 10 per cent.

Loser: University students

Young people are likely to be faced with higher university costs, with the Government announcing it will uncap university fees. Currently the student contribution to a university degree is capped, but the cap on those contributions will be removed from 2016.

The Government will also charge an interest rate on FEE-HELP loans that "reflects the cost of government borrowings". Currently loans are indexed each year to reflect inflation, however this will be replaced by the government bond rate equivalent, which is traditionally much higher than inflation.

The minimum income threshold at which people have to begin repaying their debt will be lowered by 10 per cent.

Neutral: High income earners

High income earners are to be hit with a 2 per cent Debt Levy, kicking in for those on incomes greater than $180,000 per year; however, this levy will only affect them for three years.

They will also be impacted by the fuel levy surcharge changes, which will see petrol prices indexed to inflation every six months.

The decision to reduce the maximum amount payable by the Government's paid parental leave scheme will negatively impact women earning more than $100,000 per year.

However, the Government has resisted calls to clamp down on the major tax minimisation schemes, such as negative gearing and superannuation concessions, which allow high income earners to offset large portions of their income.

Winner: Infrastructure

The Government has outlined $11.6 billion in funding for new projects.

Part of this funding takes the form of an asset recycling scheme, where the Federal Government would contribute up to 15 per cent of the value of any State assets that are invested in new infrastructure projects.

Some of the infrastructure funding will come from unallocated funding for the Building Australia Fund.

The Government expects to raise $2.2 billion (included in the $11.6 billion) over the next four years indexing the petrol fuel excise, all of which will be channelled into roads funding.

Loser: Low income earners

The introduction of a GP co-payment of $7 ($5 of which the Government will take), will hit low income earners for their first 10 visits to the GP per year ($70). After 10 visits patients with concession cards and children under 16 will be exempt from the fee.

Hospitals will also be allowed to charge for visits to emergency rooms by patients with ailments that only require a visit to a GP.

Low income earners will be hit by the decision to index the petrol excise to inflation twice a year.

Low income earners will also be negatively impacted by the Government's decision to freeze thresholds of eligibility for welfare payments as well as the payments themselves. Previously the thresholds were indexed to CPI and so the eligibility would increase as inflation increased. Similarly, payments will decrease in real terms as they no longer account for increases in inflation.

Winner: Mining

The Government will provide $100 million over four years for minerals exploration, by giving small explorers not making any taxable income access to a refundable tax offset for their Australian shareholders.

The Government has spared mining an increase in the diesel fuel excise. Currently commercial vehicles used in mining and agriculture get a rebate on the diesel fuel excise that drops it to six cents per litre. Before the budget there had been calls to raise this in line with the petrol fuel excise.

The budget also outlines $3.4 billion over the next three years from the abolition of the Minerals Resource Rent Tax.

Loser: Indigenous programs

$534 million to be cut from Indigenous programs administered by the Prime Minister and Cabinet and Health portfolios

more than 150 programs, grants and activities to be replaced with five broad-based programs under the Government's new Indigenous Advancement Strategy

new programs are jobs, land and the economy; children and schooling; safety and wellbeing; culture and capability; and remote Australia strategies

The cuts include a $3.5 million cut to the Torres Strait Regional Authority.

On top of the program cuts the Government has confirmed the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples will not get $15 million earmarked for the representative body over the next three years.

Funding for Indigenous language support announced in the last budget will also be cut by $9.5 million over five years.

A statement from Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion's office says the 2014-15 budget invests $4.8 billion on the new program priority areas under the Indigenous Advancement Strategy.New funding announcements include $54 million allocated to police stations to be built in seven remote Indigenous communities in Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia over the next four years.$13m has been allocated over the next four years establishing 3,000 places for Indigenous students to take part in the Clontarf Foundation sports academy program.

Loser: Public broadcasting

The ABC and SBS will lose 1 per cent of their annual funding over the next four years.

The ABC has lost the contract for Australia Network, saving the Government $196 million over nine years. There is no more funding outlined for the Australia Network, indicating the service will be cut.

Neutral: The private sector

In his speech the Treasurer reiterated his commitment to the 1.5 per cent cut in the company tax rate along with the 1.5 per cent levy on big businesses to pay for its parental leave scheme. However neither figure, along with the paid parental leave scheme, is listed in the detailed budget figures.

The automotive sector will endure a net loss of money as the Federal Government has cut short or cancelled programs in response to the announcements by Toyota and Holden that they would join Ford in ceasing Australian car manufacturing.

The budget announces the creation of the Entrepreneurs Infrastructure Programme at a cost of $484.2 million over five years, which aims to support the commercialisation of good ideas and provide market and industry information and advice.

However, related to the establishment of this one-stop shop, the Government is eliminating eight separate industry assistance bodies and programs that perform a similar function, to save $845.6 million over five years.

Loser: The environment

Investment in renewables has been slashed with the abolition of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, which was set up to drive research and investment. This will save the Government $1.3 billion.

The Government's $2.55 billion commitment to funding its Emissions Reduction Fund (direct action policy) will now be spread out over 10 years, as opposed to the four years previously promised.

The previous government's Carbon Capture and Storage program will lose $460 million over three years.

The budget outlines $525 million in funding for its Green Army initiative, however, this is offset by a $438 million loss to Landcare, whose community groups currently do a similar job to what the Green Army will do.